I don't know if that would be good or not. It could really go either way - remind us of a battle that was a probably a Super-Saiyan step too far for the Avatar universe, or tie the series together better. It'd really depend on how they play it.

It seems like she wouldn't just be peeling off the slabs Kuvira without metal bending, and understands that she's a way worse metal bender.

But this fight definitely confirmed that Korra is just straight-up terrible at fighting. In every non-avatar state fight she uses that technically influenced firebending style, which should be her weakest as a native waterbender. She did learn fire and earth bending seemingly around the same time as water and may have never shown a particular aptitude for water because of it. And since her water training was in some large part healing with Katara and firebending comprised most of her combat training it makes sense that she defaults to it even if it's not doing her any favors.

Soooo fucking happy we're getting a really solid Varrick arc. This forgives a lot about how ehh the season's been so far.

I love that Zhu Li gave it her absolute all in a two-on-one mech slog, barely scraping together a victory by grit and wits alone, only to have Varrick chide her like she hadn't done a god damn thing. That infuriated look she gives I read as self-directed, for failing to do her job, as impossible as it was.

Come to think of it, Toph should remember who Kuvira is, shouldn't she? Makes me wonder if A: we'll get a backstory exposition, or B: Kuvira will try to pull an "Ah, but I have your daughter hostage, muahahaha!"

I mean, maybe the overlap was only for a few years, but Toph was there for many years (the show seems to make this really easy to forget!) and Su's family took Kuvira in when she was a kid, IIRC, so it would be pretty weird if those two periods didn't have some overlap.